Van Morrison – Streamline Train Review

Van Morrison is back doing what he does best. Moaning, groaning and ruining the skiffle charms with his weak interpretations of such a dormant genre. Freight trains and musical instruments that have similarities to that of a rag cleaner from the 1950s pour through on Streamline Train. They are quintessential pieces of the period that Morrison lifts and rips on with no focused energy. Popularised by The Vipers Skittle Group, rattled out with no heart or soul by Morrison. Again his voice is intact. Once more his meaningful relationship with skiffle is at the heart. But this feels like a dull cover piece that would fit better as a vocal warm-up than something to feature on the upcoming album Walking on Skiffle. 

Morrison is not walking on skiffle; he is treading on it. Stamping and stamping away in the hopes of his vulgar adaptations and Steve Nieve-style keyboard solos making any movement toward quality. Even with that commanding vocal presence, the impact of the track and its core meaning of it is lost entirely. Reflective in the sense not of formerly lived experiences that are similar or identical to the tracks adapted, Morrison instead hopes to wedge his way into history through adequate adaptation. It is the lack of power or impact behind it that hurts most of all. Delicate moments in the life of the original artist were clipped and ran through by a man whose best works are far behind him. Returning to a genre that was in its heyday before his start feels like nothing more than a nostalgia trip people will fund.  

How a track that had so much soul to it can now sound so flat is a Morrison problem. Streamline Train ends in a stuttered, big band feel that lets the mask of its skiffle meaning slip. Morrison hopes to siphon off some of that Bruce Springsteen success from last year. Only the Strong Survive was a meaningful move for The Boss because he selected his tracks with care, considered the meaning he could give to them, and moved them on with a new range for his voice. Morrison has all the takings of a phoned-in look back on a genre he has a clear love for. Such a love does not translate to the rigid folk modernisation here. Instrumentals that feel independent of one another no matter how hard the mixing tries, underwhelmed background music that could be played on a road trip movie.  

Maybe a road trip movie is too high a bar for this piece, one that would slot in nicely as a brief cut to segue a documentary about the railroads of the late 1800s. Morrison’s music should find comfort in the past, he is digging around there for something new to maul anyway. His voice remains strong, his intention remains obnoxious and clear. Artists in the twilight years are given too much lenience and credit for continuing on as if their offerings of self-love and self-titillation are to the delight of the audience and not the artist content with reaping the fields of music far stronger than this air-headed cover. Streamline Train is a dull and flat track that will do nothing but elicit feelings for the skiffle genre, something Morrison is part of through brute force and rose-tinted financial backing alone.